What is your understanding of Information Literacy? How useful is it to an individual, especially a student?

I was given the task to formulate an essay which comprises of my understanding of Information Literacy. I will include a definition so that my audience is fully aware of what I’m speaking about and can relate what I have documented in this essay. I am a first year student at the International University of the Caribbean studying Psychology, now in my second semester and one of my compulsory courses is Information Literacy. My first impression of this course was that it was going to be a “walk-over” but as Mrs B. Anderson engages us in her creative lectures I quickly realized that it was much more than I initially thought.

Information Literacy is the capability to distinguish what information is needed, appreciate how the information is prearranged, ascertain the best sources of information for a given need (the need to complete an assignment), locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information with other individuals through various mediums. Another source, The American Library Association (1991) states that Information Literacy is “the ability to find, evaluate and use information effectively”.

Information Literacy came out of the need of wanting information. In September 1991 to March of 1992, The National Forum on Information Literacy came together, established and circulated the importance of information. We all use information throughout our daily lives; therefore we must have some skills to evaluate our sources of information based on credibility, reliability and validity. We also should be competent in finding prospective sources for information that we seek, how to use information found to critically analyse something or for problem solving, how to organize information for practical application and how to find new and innovative strategic ways to search for relevant information.

I personally think that the importance of Information Literacy should not be taken lightly. The amount of information available to persons will increase in the coming years. We as doctors, garbage collectors, students and children are surrounded and are bombarded with information of all layouts every day. From in the mornings just to look at the time on a clock, which is deemed as a form of useful information to reading your lunch ticket at the canteen. I must highlight that because of a huge cluster of information, it had to be categorized, some information may be biased or factual based or information can be authoritative, misleading and even outdated.

I use Information Literacy for academic and recreational purposes, as a student I utilize the skills taught to conduct and write my research papers. With the knowledge of the BIG SIX SKILLS, whenever I receive an assignment, the first thing I ask myself is “What am I asked to do?” This is the task definition aspect of the big six skills. After my task has been defined I then move on to brainstorm all the possible sources to get my information from whether from text books, newspapers, the internet or journals (Information seeking strategy). Subsequently I move on to locating my sources and finding information within sources, then read using both the skim and scan method to pick out all the information needed to complete my research paper. Successively, I organized all the relevant information and structure sentences into paragraphs to make my research feasible and lastly I have to unfavourably critique and edit my work. This will determine if I will receive an excellent grade or not. With the help of the big six skills I am now partially proficient in Information Literacy.

I also use Information Literacy for recreational purposes. I employ these skills whenever I am browsing the internet to play games, or to update my status with information on any of the social networks I am registered with. I also use the internet to communicate information to family and friends via Skype or Windows Messenger. I similarly read novels to gain information during my spare time.

While conducting this research I have noticed that many other professionals use Information Literacy, additionally Information Literacy can be active in many other fields apart from itself. For example, Marketing, for students who are studying Business Administration or for employees in the marketing field can use Information Literacy to access information quickly and it’s easy to be aware of what’s going on in the marketing world. Also, they can use Information Technology to work with information provided my managers or other team members. Possess a set of information skills and apply them to the task in hand. They can use information literacy to solve real-world problems. Become a critical thinker to contemplate innovative ways to attract consumers for the market and become a confident, independent practitioner. In English, information literacy can be used to access and retrieve textual information. Like Marketing using IT to access and retrieve information. By the same token, possess the basic research skills and to be aware of how and when to use them and lastly to become confident, autonomous learners and critical thinkers. Information Literacy can be used in Chemistry to access and search for chemical information. Mastering a chemist's information skills set and the communicating of medical knowledge.

In concluding, Information Literacy is a continuous building programme of skills and knowledge throughout the life of an individual, in other words it is a lifelong process. As we grow as a nation it is important for us to have all access to information and use it wisely. I personally think that Information Literacy should be taught at every level in the education institutions as it serves as an essential part of human development. As my favourite Reggae artiste Damion Marley stated in one of his songs “Cause knowledge a di key and it will set the people free”. How do acquire knowledge? By reading, listening and evaluating information around us.

Reference Page

Rieldling A.M (April 30, 2007) An Educators Guide to Information Literacy: What Every Senior Needs to Know. Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.